{"id":335597,"date":"2025-08-11T11:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T11:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/335597\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T11:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T11:30:12","slug":"mothers-genes-may-shape-childrens-weight-even-without-being-passed-down-ucl-ioe-faculty-of-education-and-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/335597\/","title":{"rendered":"Mothers\u2019 genes may shape children\u2019s weight – even without being passed down | UCL IOE – Faculty of Education and Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mother\u2019s genetics may play a bigger role in determining whether a child becomes overweight than a father\u2019s, as a result of a concept known as genetic nurture, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Mother<\/p>\n

Published in\u00a0PLOS Genetics<\/a>, the study analysed genetic and health data from 2,621 UK families in the Millennium Cohort Study, a UK birth cohort study of individuals born in 2001\/02.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers investigated how parents\u2019 body mass index (BMI) and related genes influence their children\u2019s weight and diet from birth to age 17.<\/p>\n

To do this, the team examined the association between parental BMI and child birthweight, BMI, and diet at six key points during childhood and adolescence, ages 3, 5, 7, 11, 14, and 17. Children\u2019s diets were assessed through self-reported records of how often and how much they consumed different food groups, including fruit, vegetables, fast food, and sugary drinks.<\/p>\n

By measuring both children\u2019s and their parents\u2019 genes, the researchers were able to separate the direct effects of inherited genes from the indirect effect of genes that were not inherited. Non-inherited genes can still influence children\u2019s outcomes by influencing the development environment \u2013 such as conditions in the womb and parenting practices \u2013 as these are shaped by parents\u2019 genetics.<\/p>\n

Researchers found that while both parents\u2019 BMI was linked to their child\u2019s BMI, father\u2019s influence could be explained almost entirely by direct genetic inheritance. In contrast, the mother\u2019s BMI continued to affect the child\u2019s weight even after direct genetic inheritance.<\/p>\n

This suggests, the researchers say, that\u00a0genetic nurture \u2013 where a parent\u2019s genes shape the environment they create for their child – may be at play. For example, a mother\u2019s genes might influence her own weight, eating habits, or behaviours during pregnancy, which in turn affect her child\u2019s development and long-term health.<\/p>\n

Dr Liam Wright (UCL Social Research Institute), the study\u2019s lead author, recently said:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cMothers\u2019 genetics appear to play an important role in influencing her child\u2019s weight over and above the child\u2019s genetics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to the genes mums directly pass on, our findings suggest that maternal genetics are instrumental in shaping the environment in which the child develops, therefore indirectly influencing the child\u2019s BMI too.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The researchers acknowledged that BMI is an imperfect measure of body fat accumulation, particularly among children, and so supplemented their analysis with several other adiposity-related measures, including fat mass.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Wright added:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about blaming mothers, rather, supporting families to make a meaningful difference to children\u2019s long-term health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTargeted interventions to reduce maternal BMI, particularly during pregnancy, could reduce the intergenerational impacts of obesity.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Childhood obesity is a continuing problem in the UK and across many other countries, with NHS data showing 27% of children aged 2-15 years-old were considered obese or overweight in 2024\u00b9.<\/p>\n

The study was funded by the Medical Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, and the Norwegian Research Council.<\/p>\n

Links<\/strong><\/p>\n

Image<\/strong><\/p>\n

Media contact\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sophie Hunter<\/strong><\/p>\n

E:\u00a0sophie.hunter@ucl.ac.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

T: +44 7502505610<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mother\u2019s genetics may play a bigger role in determining whether a child becomes overweight than a father\u2019s,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[78925,7435,1545,26071,389,120127,5034,14042,2266,267,10468,27710,13464,666,2343,10118,70,10022,2773,16,15,44080],"class_list":{"0":"post-335597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-august","9":"tag-bmi","10":"tag-brain","11":"tag-childhood","12":"tag-children","13":"tag-cohort","14":"tag-council","15":"tag-credit","16":"tag-education","17":"tag-genetics","18":"tag-institute","19":"tag-liam","20":"tag-mothers","21":"tag-plos","22":"tag-research","23":"tag-researchers","24":"tag-science","25":"tag-social","26":"tag-ucl","27":"tag-uk","28":"tag-united-kingdom","29":"tag-wright"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115009907839227598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}